Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told a Senate committee Tuesday, February 2 that they have appointed a high-level working group to report, by the end of 2010, on how the military can adapt should Congress choose to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prohibits gays from serving openly in the armed forces. (read more)

It's a scene reminiscent of Dreamgirls . The year is 1958, and The Gospelaires just won the weekly amateur contest at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater. The manager of one of the headline acts says that he needs some girls to sing backup on a session, and teenage Marie Dionne Warrick says, "We'll do it!" Warwick, who changed her professional surname as the result of a pleasing typo on an early demo recording, chuckles at the comparison. "I don't know if it's Dreamgirls, but it's the way the industry worked at that time." (read more)